Note: Okay, this was originally a short story it still is but I'm breaking this up into parts. As I was writing this, I was kinda worried about style and all things like that. Lately I've been thinking that I don't really know my style. So I am feeling a little iffy about this. But I do know where I want this to go and I hope that people can be patient as I work out the kinks. All reviews and comments are appreciated. Thanks.
By the Sea
By Angel of Death
Part 1
Sarah Montgomery stared out the window. The sky was barren and the land was laid low. Everything from the dry hot plains to the valleys down below, was orange.
It was as if Arizona was born in fire.
She could feel her insides tying into knots. No matter how many glasses of water she gulped down the uneasiness remained, hot and painful. For some reason she didn't feel right with her mother's wedding dress on. The corset embedded in the waist was like arms squeezing the life out of her and her grandmother's pearls weren't making the situation any better.
In the glass, before the flames that was to be her new home, lye her reflection. Her skin was stark white and her usually sun-kissed eyes were cloudy with a chance of rain. The hair she had spent hours curling now fell around her shoulders in sweaty ebony tendrils.
She was getting married today.
Ever since she was a little girl in pink dresses and pigtails, she dreamed that she'd be like Barbie and marry Ken and have lots of kids in a huge house on the beach. It was a silly dream but she wanted it more than anything.
Tradition was important in her small conservative family. All of the women married the first man they slept with and stayed home raising the kids while the men put the bread on the table. She wasn't going to marry Joey Dallas with his car grease hair and hungry eyes just because she decided to get drunk on a Friday night. She wasn't going to stay at home like some dog on a chain waiting for their owner to pull into the driveway. That was not going to be her life.
There was a knock on the door and then it creaked open. Sarah could see the reflection of her mother. She couldn't tell if it was happiness or an injection of Botox that made her mother smile. But who was she kidding, her mother didn't want her to marry Rex Paulson, the suave man from the fire. She didn't like the way his words slipped off his tongue like butter. She didn't like the way he looked at Sarah or the way he touched her when he thought no one was looking.
Let's face it, Rex Paulson was too old for little Sarah Montgomery, the girl with the roses on her cheeks and the sunflowers in her eyes. Sweet, innocent, Sarah Montgomery and oh what people would say. They'd whisper like hymns, singing words of disgust and they'd ask: Why oh why would a city girl marry a man who was twice her age? And Mrs. Elaine Montgomery wouldn't know how to answer, she'd just purse her thin pink lips until they disappeared, hoping that all the talk would just die down so she wouldn't have to deal with embarrassment.
Elaine Montgomery could give her daughter praise and hug her and kiss her all she wanted to, but Sarah knew what she really thought. Her lips could lie but her distant blue eyes couldn't.
"You don't have to go through with this." Mrs. Montgomery said, sighing. The smile remained.
Turning to face her, Sarah tried to erase the fear in her heart for she knew that it was painted on her face like a Star of David, screaming I'm a Jew! I'm a Jew!
"Mom, I'm fine." Her voice quaked and quivered as she said this but it was true. She was fine. Rex Paulson was the only man she could ever love and that was the honest-to-God truth.
They had met in Boston. He was a laid back businessman and she was a freshman in college working part-time at the bar on Fairfax Avenue. Everyday he'd come in and she'd serve him. It was like that for weeks until he said her name. His slight accent rolled over the two syllable name that was engraved on her tag like tumbleweeds in an old western. She didn't even have to stare into his bright eyes to know that he was the one. And just because he had Route 66 wrinkles didn't mean he was too old for her. He had just seen more roads than she could ever travel, is all. It didn't matter that she was 20 and he was 40. Age was just a number after all.
"You are not fine. Look at you," Mrs. Montgomery whispered, pulling her close.
Sarah inhaled the sweet scent that her mother emitted, tasting home. Her stomach began to give birth to more butterflies. Soon they were all flapping their wings, making tears fall silently down her cheeks.
"We can call this whole thing off," her mother said but Sarah shook her head 'no'. She was scared and frightened and her feet were cold, but this was the one thing she's wanted ever since she was little. And like her grandmother said, you never looked a gift horse in the mouth.
Rex Paulson could provide her with anything her heart desired but she wasn't after his money. She wasn't marrying him because she could have a huge old house by the sea or because he was handsome but she said yes because he asked. Wasn't that a good enough explanation for getting married? Well, Sarah Montgomery thought so.
"In a few hours I'm going to be Mrs. Rex Paulson," and with that, she pulled away from her mother. A faint smile playing on her lips.
I'm here to give your story a quick look over, okay?
